Journalists a ‘Target’ in Syria, Reporter Says

“Shameless brutality” — those are the words the United States chose Wednesday to describe Bashar al-Assad’s all-out military assault on Syria’s freedom movement.

The 40-year dictatorship of the Assad family seems bent on crushing the citizens’ rebellion that began nearly a year ago.

On Wednesday, civilians in Homs — a city of more than one and a half million — suffered through their 19th day of artillery bombardment. An intense morning barrage killed 74, including a French photo journalist and an American reporter, Marie Colvin.

She was a veteran war correspondent, 56 years old, from Long Island, New York. She lost her left eye in an ambush in Sri Lanka in 2001.

“Being a war correspondent to me has never been, y’know ‘Is that T-52 tank or a T-72 tank?’ It’s about people, what people are going through,” Colvin said about her work.

Colvin was killed along with award-winning French photojournalist Remi Ochlik when rockets or mortars struck a building in Homs where reporters were working. Two other journalists, French and British, were wounded.

On Tuesday night, Colvin told CNN by phone the bombardment of Homs was, in her word, “sickening.”

“Every civilian house has been hit. We’re talking a poor popular neighborhood. The top floor of the building I’m in has been hit, in fact, totally destroyed. There are no military targets here. It’s a complete and utter lie they’re only going after terrorists,” Colvin said.